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We pretty much understand the most important part of agronomy. We do not need to sprinkle bull blood, sacrifice virgins or pray to imaginary beings for a decent crop. Understanding plant growth is all that is necessary. Adding in God's wrath or pleasure at our behaviour is an unnecessary element for an abundant harvest.

Too many topics discussed here add in useless elements based soley on fantasy and heresay. This only furthers ignorance; never knowledge. While it may be more "fun", it is the antithesis to any sort of search for truth.

I recently wrote an essay on this topic, more specifically the Venus figurines. They are figurines, mostly in statuette form, of obese or heavily pregnant women from the Aurignacian or Gravettian period of the upper Palaeolithic.The women would carry them throughout their lifetime, a lifetime that included a large amount of sex, and ta-da, they'd get pregnant! Obviously the workings of the figurines.

I don't believe he was speaking about people who lack the proper information, but instead people who have an available source of information with high accuracy and still deviate to believe alternative "truths" that they find more interesting.

We can evolve spiritually, philisopically and defiently technologically. Which part we develope better will be how we survive. Survival of the fittest i say. If we choose the wrong path and become extinct. It was a part of nature to lead us that way. If we do advance and do survive, wars will end and we shall grow strong.

Quote:This only furthers ignorance; never knowledge. While it may be more "fun", it is the antithesis to any sort of search for truth.

This is not solely a science forum. Where questions on life in general are concerned, there is no truth. Even in science, fantasy is required, because without baseless allegations science would not have progressed as far as it has.

--------------------It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.

I thought that they were possibly symbols for the matriarchal society of that time? I do think i remember hearing that they were used for purposes of fertility. They represented the historical female, the earth godess, or whatever. Wide hips for child bearth, and large breasts for feeding the young. The key elements for continuing the population...

It's sorta like our society is not about survival, we have lots of technology and our society is built to last. It's sorta like survival is deep routed in it though. It has become so easy to survive simple now that we no longer look at it as survival.

--------------------Annnnnnd I had a light saber and my friend was there and I said "you look like an indian" and he said "you look like satan" and he found a stick and a rock and he named the rock ooga booga and he named the stick Stick and we both thought that was pretty funny. We got eaten alive by mosquitos but didn't notice til the next day. I stepped on some glass while wading in the swamp and cut my foot open, didn't bother me til the next day either....yeah it was a good time, ended the night by buying some liquor for minors and drinking nips and going to he diner and eating chicken fingers, and then I went home and went to bed.---senior doobie

You mean your search for truth right? Allow others to search anyway they choose. You are free to debate them and debunk them. You do not know what truth is for sure and you cannot know where it will be found. Are you the one who knows how to search for truth and which direction it may be found? My ears are open.

-------------------- "Don't believe everything you think". -Anom.

" All that lives was born to die"-Anom.

With much wisdom comes much sorrow,
The more knowledge, the more grief.
Ecclesiastes circa 350 BC

Rituals and beliefs are simply expressions of an internal experiance. The belief in "God" is universal in every single culture. The law of cause and effect dictate that this behavior exists because something CAUSED it to become so. So what if we can't understand what the cause is, that doesn't mean that it can't be explained. To ask questions and examine all possiblities the The TRUE Search for TRUTH.

If you look closely enough you can find the logic in illogical systems of thought (and vice versa).

Quit belittling people who happen to refer to color by symbolic names instead of frequencies of lightwaves.

Quote:This only furthers ignorance; never knowledge. While it may be more "fun", it is the antithesis to any sort of search for truth.

This is not solely a science forum. Where questions on life in general are concerned, there is no truth. Even in science, fantasy is required, because without baseless allegations science would not have progressed as far as it has.

Hypotheses are not fantasies. They are predictions based on what is known. I agree with Swami's point, which is basically what Occam's Razor is saying: Don't make more assumptions than necessary. If you can get a good harvest without sacrificing a virgin, then don't sacrifice a virgin.

If her sexual patterns don't change and the only difference is her belief in the idol. Then the idol worked.

Her belief in the need for the idol is what was keeping her from conceiving. The mind is a very powerful organ. It controls everything about us. If she believed that she needed the idol....then, she needed the idol.

Once she got the idol......she got pregnant because she believed she would.

They (who ever sold the idol) would not have been nearly as successful if they hadn't convinced their public that they needed it.

Placebo is a powerful force caused by baseless rituals, but science is much more effective. Rituals to heal the sick may help them recover quicker in a primitive culture, but they don't compare to antibiotics.

It seems clear to me that these rituals are baseless and unnecessary in the modern age with science and technology functioning so much more effectively and actually using the principles of our reality to work their charm, but were these rituals always baseless? Did they ever serve any function?

If you believe in the power of placebo, then these rituals once may have aided, and continue to aid, humans without the help of real scientific cures. Chances are they can't cure cancer or cause rain to appear, but they may help raise the spirits of the sick and cause a woman to become more promiscuous in search of becoming pregnant. Whether or not these false effects are useful is purely point of view.

--------------------So long as you are praised think only that you are not yet on your own path but on that of another.

These rituals were to distract the patient from obsessing on their condition.

Many rituals, such as human sacrifice for better harvest, were merely acts of ignorant frustration. "We don't understand drought, so it is better to do SOMETHING rather than nothing; even if it is useless or worthless." I think it is time to outgrow this mindset.